Who Will Replace Retiring Barney Frank?

In a press conference later this afternoon, Democratic congressman Barney Frank will announce that he will not seek re-election in 2012. The last time the career of a beloved, longstanding Massachusetts public official ended, the people of the Bay State elected Scott Brown, an unshorn Cosmopolitan centerfold and America’s Sexist Man 1982.

Who might replace Barney Frank? The New York Timessays “Setti Warren, the mayor of Newton, [or] Alan Khazei, who lives in Brookline and co-founded a national service program.” The guy with the really appealing haircut modeling the Wallace & Barnes brush jacket in the winter J. Crew catalogue also seems like a smart bet, although early reports suggest that big G.O.P. donors are flocking to the gentleman who appears in this stock image of “lovely couple sitting together at a table to work on a laptop with calculator.”

Frank will likely make hundreds of thousands of dollars on the lecture circuit, write a book, and stump for Barack Obama—just one of which sounds preferable to serving in Congress.